


Flower Thieves and Graveyards

by demistories



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 04:51:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3923575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demistories/pseuds/demistories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Sometimes I steal flowers from your garden on my way to the cemetery, but today you’ve caught me and have demanded to come with me to make sure the “girl is pretty enough to warrant flower theft” and I’m trying to figure out how to break it to you that we’re on our way to a graveyard” AU -Awful AUs #196 on tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flower Thieves and Graveyards

**Author's Note:**

> A quick oneshot I wrote based on a AU. That may be becoming a fic? I don't know, but here's something because I feel bad for not updating WYCS. (Next week hopefully! I've got testing all week)
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Annabeth had a routine. It was very exact, not because it had to be, but just because that’s who she was as a person. And it wasn’t hard to keep.

Every Friday she got out of work at 5:40, approximately. Then she’d go home (4 minutes), change and drop off her work and school stuff (5 minutes), and sneak back out before she was caught. Caught to cook dinner or set up for dinner, or talk about school or work, or really do anything other than what she had planned. 

Her family still thought that she worked until 6:45, which definitely helped. And she had mastered sneaking in and out of her window when she was eight. 

The walk to the cemetery took 13 to 21 minutes, depending on the week. On weeks when she made enough money and had enough to spare, she’d take a detour to a flower shop, and buy whatever she could afford. 

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, that only happened about once a month. Twice if she was lucky. And those months felt _extremely_  lucky. She was a broke high school student, after all. She had her sights set on good colleges, good colleges that were very pricey. And she was sure that she’d secure some sort of scholarship, whether it was for academics or sports, but she’d still need the money. Every penny she made was set aside for room, board, clothes,and the four million dollars she was going to end up spending on textbooks.

So she had a set goal for each week. If she made more through tips or study sessions, she was able to buy flowers. If not…well there was a really nice garden on the way the cemetery, and they wouldn’t miss a few daisies or petunias. 

She didn’t think her routine would be so thrown off by getting out of work nine minutes late. 

Annabeth was just glad that she didn’t have to go to the flower shop. She wasn’t glad that she hadn’t made more money, but she didn’t have time to stop and go choose flowers. Whatever she could easily grab from that garden would work just fine. It always did. 

She was reaching for a violet when she realized how _perfect_  her time table had been. 

“Hey!” She looked up to see a boy standing in the doorway with a look of disbelief written across his face. “Are you serious?”

“Um…” She looked from the violets back to him. “No?”

“You’re _stealing_ from my garden?”

“No!”

“Then what are those?” he asked, pointing to the flowers in her other hand. 

“Not yours,” Annabeth said quickly. 

He ignored her. “I knew it! I knew someone was stealing! There were definitely more daffodils the other week.”

“This is your garden?”

“If you want to get technical, it’s my mom’s. But it’s just as much— Hold on, that’s not important. Way to change the subject. Why are you stealing flowers?”

“I…” She tried to come up with something. Every excuse she ever had flew from her mind. “I was just looking. Examining. You have very nice violets.” 

He crossed his arms. “’Examining’? Why would you be examining our violets?” 

“Because it’s important.” She cursed herself silently. She was trying to build up a convincing argument, but her mind was not thinking clearly. Emotions were stupid. 

“So important that you’re totally destroying my mom’s patterns and killing her flowers?”

“It’s still a nice garden,” Annabeth said with a weak smile.

His confusion melted into a smile. “Thanks! Do you mean, important as in for an important _someone_?” 

She stared at him blankly. “Uh…”

“They better be cute,” he teased. 

Annabeth shook her head. “Wait, I’m sorry— What?”

“Are they cute?”

“…I think you lost me.”

He laughed and stepped out of the house, closing the door behind him. “I’m coming with you.”

“I—”

“Is whoever you’re giving my flowers to pretty enough to warrant flower theft?” 

“Well…” 

“Then it’s settled. I’m coming with you.” 

Annabeth hesitated. 

The boy raised an eyebrow. “You steal flowers constantly. You do know where you’re going, right?”

“Of course.” 

As she led him the the cemetery, she weighed her options. Piper would be all too willing to play along, which could be hilarious. But she was also on a date with her boyfriend, which was definitely a problem. Not to mention the fact that Piper was across town. 

“I’m Percy, by the way,” he said, interrupting her strategizing. 

“Annabeth,” she answered automatically, noticing they were too close to the cemetery to do much of anything at this point. Now she just had to figure out how to break it to him that they were on their way to a graveyard. 

She stopped just before they turned onto the cemetery’s street. “I have to warn you…”

Percy frowned. “This isn’t some sort of prank is it? Did Leo put you up to this?”

Annabeth shook her head. “I don’t even know any Leos. It’s just… It’s not what you’re expecting, okay?”

He nodded slowly. “…okay?”

He knew where they were going the moment they turned the corner. 

“Oh.”

Annabeth decided to pretend Percy didn’t exist as she stepped through the iron wrought gates. She made her way to the back corner that her and Luke had picked out, laying the flowers on the ground next to the tombstone. 

“Hey, Thal,” she said, smiling at the marker. When she was younger, she felt stupid for talking to a rock. It wasn’t the same as talking to her friend. But overtime, that rock was more understanding than her entire family. It had heard more secrets than all of her friends combined. 

It still wasn’t the same, but if she tried really hard, she could imagine Thalia sitting with her back against it, enjoying the shade of the pine trees and laughing or scowling at all the right times. 

“So, uh, I met the person I steal your flowers from.” Annabeth laughed. “You’d be disappointed, huh? Finally caught, and I blubbered my way through it. You would’ve handled it better.” She thought better of it. “Okay, maybe not. But you wouldn’t have stared at the boy like he had three heads.”

She looked over her shoulder and was relieved to see Percy standing several rows away, looking at tombstones with his hands in his pockets. 

“I kind of dragged him here. On accident, of course,” she added quickly. “He assumed I was stealing flowers for like a date or something, and I didn’t correct him. Or tell him that you were, you know, until we were literally minutes away from here.” She blinked some tears away. “You know I really don’t have control of my emotions on Fridays. _Especially_  this month. Thought I’d be better at that by now…” 

Annabeth took a deep breath and shook her curls back, wiping her cheeks. “I should probably head back, I wouldn’t want to keep Percy here.” She kissed her fingers and touched them to the tombstone. “Next time I’ll be here longer, I promise. See you in a week.”

Percy looked up as she walked over. “I didn’t realize—”

“And I didn’t say anything,” she interrupted, walking past him towards the gates. 

“You know,” he said, catching up to her as she approached them. “My mom makes really good hot chocolate and is a really good listener if you ever want to talk.”

She nodded. Talking about Thalia definitely wasn’t something she was going to do. It had been one thing when it was with Luke, but Annabeth wasn’t ready to share Thalia with someone who never knew. 

Percy ducked his head and lowered his voice. “And also, if you ever need flowers, you can just ask. I think we can spare a few.” 


End file.
